A Huge Improvement

Since I am human, I never make stupid mistakes. I would never, ever set my camera on the dining room table and forget to bring it to the barn. I'm just not capable of that sort of negligence. 

Yeah, I left the camera at home. Thankfully, I have many old pictures to make up for it. That doesn't make it any less disappointing. The lighting was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was going down; everything was golden; and there was a wonderful sunset. The best part was the slight breeze. I think this is the first non-windy day in weeks! And it showed, Gambler was exceptionally good yesterday. 

I started up with the same warm up I've been using for a couple of days: longe walk/trot over ground poles in both directions for a few minutes and then canter over one pole on the ground. When Gambler is circling to the left, he tends to break gait at the poles, but he'll figure it out with time. 

Once he was warmed up I put on the saddle. This time he stood ground tied for me to put the saddle  on. Of course, I still had to hold him to tighten the cinch. I always tighten it in three stages, very slowly, but he still reacts strongly. Yesterday he was grunting again and throwing his head up. I thought maybe it was hurting him, but then he went back to normal. I'm convinced that the bugger is too smart for his own good. 

When saddle was on I longed him at the walk in both directions, then tightened the cinch. I trotted him in both directions and then tightened it again. The last time I cantered Gambler in the saddle he had a little bucking fit, so when I asked for the canter I was expecting a buck or two. He of course jumped into the canter and bucked a little. Gambler is the stop-and-buck type, as opposed to the run-and-crow-hop type, so when he stopped to buck I just asked him to keep going. After that he cantered with the saddle without a problem. I even added in the canter pole, but he took it like a pro.

I almost got on him yesterday. I did some mounting prep, but Gambler was pretty nervous. I'm going to spend some time standing on things waving my arms over his head and jumping around next to him until he learns to relax. I'm kinda glad that I didn't mount him, because I really want pictures, and as I mentioned before, somebody left the camera at home.